The Madness of The Mask
by LeopardKnight
Summary: (Chapter three added at long last!) The fierce deity's mask posesses Link's body, and he goes on a rampage
1. Default Chapter

The Madness of the Mask  
  
I know that I forgot to do this for my first fic, but I'd rather not have to repost the whole   
thing, so, I'll make a disclaimer from now on.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Zelda, or any of the characters in this fic, if I did, I wouldn't   
be writing this, I'd be making a couple of million on the games, thank you.  
  
This is an alternate universe fic, it has nothing at all to do with my other fan fiction: The   
Lone Wolf.  
  
* * * *  
  
Inside the possessed moon hanging mere stories above Clock town, a battle raged. Link   
was bruised, cut up, battered, and nearly broken.  
  
This demonic mask was no laughing matter.  
  
He'd managed to take care of it's first two forms without taking too many hits, the   
mirror shield had handled the fire beam from the mask and the incarnation's multiple   
energy balls, but the tentacles of this new form, the wrath, were really ripping up on him.  
  
Not to mention that he'd ran out of arrows to cast the light arrow spell on about 15   
minutes ago, although, thanks to the chateau Romani that he'd drank, he had infinite   
magic now.  
  
"Give it up boy! I'm the king of the world, you can't beat me!" the hideous Beast   
taunted from the other side of the room.  
  
Link growled and tried again with the hookshot to stun the demon.  
  
Nothing, the hookshot was too slow.  
  
"Not working kid, cant you do anything right?" the mask's wrath form taunted.  
  
"Link!" Tatyl cried.  
  
Link looked up at her. "What?" he yelled.  
  
"The mask the Majora kid gave you, use it!"  
  
"Are you nuts? The thing's bound to be a trap!" Link yelled, dodging a tentacle's whip-  
like snap.  
  
"I'm sorry link, but you don't seem to have much of a choice right now!" Tatyl said.  
  
He took the thing out, and looked at it. It looked like the face of a ferocious warrior,   
namely him as an adult, even down to the blue stocking cap, but was it's power even   
worse than Majora, like the kid had said?  
  
Link didn't have any choice in the matter though, as his options were now extremely   
limited.  
  
He slapped the mask on his face, it constricted, and he screamed.  
  
* * * *  
  
Falling…  
  
He was falling down a deep, dark abyss…  
  
Link was falling, and as he looked up, he could see the scene in the moon, Majora's   
Wrath standing there ready to strike, but he wasn't in it.  
  
Wait, the scene was from his point of view, and that was what he was falling away   
from…  
  
Link jerked to a halt in the fall, his collar being held by someone, an adult.  
  
He struggled and looked at the person that had grabbed him.  
  
And saw his-own face staring back at him.  
  
It was the face of his adult self, but it was… different, the eyes, they were…  
  
They were white.  
  
Link gasped and took the rest of it in. The person's hair was solid white, with the   
slightest streaking of blond in it. There was red and blue war paint around the eyes and   
forehead, and the mouth and jaw were set in a hard expression.  
  
The person was wearing a white tunic and cap, black tights, boots, all like he would   
have worn but in all different colors, but the thing about his garb that drew Link's   
attention was what he was wearing over the tunic.  
  
A heavy plate armor covered the torso of the warrior.  
  
"Who are you?" Link asked, his voice quiet.  
  
The being smiled maniacally. "The last person you will ever see." It said, in his own,   
grown up voice!  
  
It dropped Link again, and he fell…  
  
And then lost his conscious self, as the entity that had been sealed in the mask took   
over.  
  
* * * *  
  
The Demon that was the mask stood there looking at the form on the ground.  
  
"What's the matter, it the mask too much for you?" it asked cackling.  
  
"Link! Please get up!" Tatyl cried.  
  
The figure slowly stood up, it's head hung, eyes straight at the ground, but closed.  
  
"Oh, so you're giving up are you? Fine, fine, that's just fine…" the demon got in a   
battle stance not unlike one of the Pirate women readying for a spinning jump strike.   
"I'll take you out painlessly…" and it leapt at him swinging it's massive tentacle at him.  
  
Tatyl screamed.  
  
In the span of a split second, the armored figure's left arm shot out and a massive sword   
with a blade like a double helix shot out of it's palm, and was caught in that same hand.   
The warrior raised it's head and opened it's glowing white eyes, grabbed the other half of   
the sword's hilt with it's right hand, and swung the huge weapon at the beast in a   
powerful arc…  
  
And severed the tentacle from the demon's arm  
  
The demon screeched and danced to the other end of the chamber, clutching it's bloody   
stump.  
  
"How did you do that?" it screeched.  
  
The warrior looked at the demon emotionlessly, and gripped the weapon in its hands,   
causing orbs of energy to flash off of it. It swung the weapon in midair, causing a disc of   
light blue energy to fly at the monster.  
  
It connected, caused a huge gaping, searing wound in the thing's midsection, and a   
charge of incredible energies throughout its whole body.  
  
Link then dashed forward and did a leaping, overhead slash at the beast, cutting the head   
in two and imbedding the blade in the beast's chest.  
  
The beast screeched and went limp as it hovered in air. Yellow energy shot out all over   
its body and flooded the chamber as the monster disintegrated, and a shockwave blasted   
Tatyl into a wall, knocking her unconscious.  
  
Then, Majora's mask fell from midair to land on the ground. It's large eyes dim, it's   
power gone.  
  
"Payback time Majora." The deity said.  
  
The warrior hefted its battle blade, and swung down hard, severing the now nearly   
worthless piece of wood in two.  
  
"You thought you had power?" the warrior said, shaking its head. It looked around at   
the chamber, and turned the sword in its hands back into pure energy. He picked up   
Tatyl's still form in one armored hand.  
  
"You, I'll spare, because you helped me get this body." he said, and teleported the tiny,   
still form outside the moon.  
  
Then it threw its hands up towards the ceiling and raw power lanced off the warrior's   
body, blowing holes in the moon  
  
* * * *  
  
Outside, the people watching the moon saw a bright blue light come from inside it,   
illuminating the inside of the mouth. Suddenly, cracks began to break out all over the   
rocky surface of the planetoid, and light lancing from those cracks, becoming more and   
more broken up until…  
  
The moon detonated.  
  
Clock town, under the protection of the giants was unharmed, but the shockwave was so   
strong that the trees ranging all the way into the swamp, right up to the gates of the Deku   
palace were knocked over.  
  
A glowing point of light was all that remained in the spot where the moon had been.  
  
The warrior, the fierce deity, hovered there, it's arms crossed, glowing with a blinding   
light from it's own raw power.  
  
It had access to all of Link's memories, all of his knowledge, and his abilities.  
  
Not to mention the Triforce of courage that was in Link's body.  
  
The fierce deity looked down at the clock tower. And he descended toward it.  
  
He walked through the doors below the clock tower, and entered into the underwater   
system that powered the clock, and walked up to the mask salesman.  
  
"Oh, I see you have acquired the power of the fierce Deity, that is one fine mask, but-"  
  
"It is still not what you are looking for? I know that you fool." The Deity said, and   
dropped the two severed halves of Majora's mask at the Salesman's feet.  
  
The salesman stared at the broken mask on the ground.  
  
"What did you do that for?" the mask salesman asked, dumbfounded.  
  
The fierce deity whipped out it's sword and stabbed the Salesman in the chest.  
  
"Because I felt like it." it said.  
  
Leaving the mask salesman and the broken mask behind him, he walked down to the   
sealed door below and blasted it open with a sword beam. From there, he flew back   
through the massive cave, to reach the point where Link had been cursed by Majora in   
the first place.  
  
He looked up at the huge drop, and started to rise.  
  
* * * *  
  
Meanwhile, back in Termina field, the skull kid and the two fairies were having a   
reunion, the giants had just left, the skull kid was happy, but there was something   
wrong…  
  
Link wasn't there.  
  
As the Skull kid did a cartwheel, rejoicing, Tatl looked around, then hovered up high.  
  
"Hey Tael, did you see Link?" she asked.  
  
Tael shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not." He said.  
  
Tatl sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't get to say goodbye Link." She said.  
  
"Ummm… Tatl?" Tael said.  
  
"Yes Tael?" she replied.  
  
"Link's horse is still here." He said.  
  
"WHAT!?"  
  
* * * *  
  
It was Hyrule, 7 years later. Ganondorf's empire had been shattered by what was now a   
ghostly phantom of the body that was now inhabited by the fierce deity, and that had   
returned to the past, to start off a new cycle.  
  
But at the moment, the warrior god wasn't interested in that, he knew it would play out   
the way it had before.  
  
What he wanted was what that fool, Ganondorf, with his limited powers, had somehow   
obtained.  
  
The Triforce of power.  
  
He already had the Triforce of courage, from Link, but he wanted the whole thing, see if   
it could really make him that much stronger.  
  
* * * *  
  
A short time after Gannondorf had been sealed off, and the "Hero of Time" had gone   
back to the past, the Deity came out of hiding.  
  
He hovered over Hyrule field, almost up as high as the moon had been on the first day,   
he was surveying the land, looking at it in an almost clinical manner.  
  
"Desert to the west… forest to the east… mountains to the north, and lake to the south   
…" he whispered to himself.  
  
He turned around slowly in midair, and looked at the castle town.  
  
"Time to make a short 'Pilgrimage' to the temple of time." He chuckled dryly.  
  
* * * *  
  
The fierce deity arrived in the temple unseen, as he had flown high over the castle walls,   
and around the back way to the temple.  
  
The white haired warrior walked inside the temple, and glanced around the massive hall   
briefly.  
  
"Humph… I'll have them build a temple twice as impressive in my name when I'm   
done here." He said contemptuously  
  
He walked past the alter that held the spiritual stones, and up to the master sword. He   
tried to draw it, but to no avail, the enchantment was stronger than even the combined   
Triforce, but the hero was the only one who could ever draw that blade, him or his   
successor.  
  
"Blast this stupid sword. Now how do I enter the Chamber of sages?" he said clenching   
his fists in rage.  
  
Suddenly, something popped into his head. He hovered up above the pedestal of time   
and took the whole thing in from above.  
  
The design looked curiously like the pedestal that was in the center of the chamber of   
sages.  
  
"Six symbols surround, and the Triforce completes…"  
  
The deity smiled maliciously, and held his hands, palms facing outward, down at the   
pedestal, and let out a beam of light blue energy.  
  
The Triforce symbol, and the symbols of the sages, began to glow brightly, and a return   
beam shot up from around the Triforce symbol, and sent the Deity into the sacred realm.  
  
* * * *  
  
When he reformed, the deity found himself in the chamber of sages. He looked around   
at the curious surroundings, the light pillars in the distance, the sages symbols in the   
pillar, and the Triforce symbol.  
  
Suddenly, the light symbol began to glow. As did the light medallion that was still in   
the bag of items that link had carried with him.  
  
Rauru emerged from the stone, not unlike a Deku scrub emerging from its flower.  
  
"Hero, have you returned to this place so soon? And you are wearing new armor, why?   
Your quest has ended, rest now." The old man said.  
  
"The old idiot must be blind. And his ethereal senses going dim." The Deity thought to   
himself.  
  
"I merely wish to ask you a question, old man." the Deity said.  
  
"Hm, well, I believe that's alright." Rauru said.  
  
"What would happen to your seal if one of the sages died?" he asked.  
  
Rauru's eyes went wide. "Died? Oh my… I believe that if one of us died, the seal   
would loose one sixth of it's full strength."  
  
"What about your powers?" the deity asked.  
  
"Our powers would leave our deceased bodies and return to the medallions."  
  
"So whoever had the medallion at that time would have all of the particular sages   
powers, is that right Rauru?"  
  
Rauru was looking acutely uncomfortable. "Y-yes… What are you getting at hero? I'm   
confused, why the macabre topic for the question?"  
  
The deity smiled, his lips never parting but the expression holding plenty of malice.  
  
"Oh, no reason." The Deity replied, holding its hands together in front of its chest plate.  
  
Suddenly, Rauru gasped as he felt an onrush of a dark power within the figure before   
him. He could sense that the person was indeed link, but the darkness inside it was   
horrendous.  
  
"Link! What has happened to you to become so powerful in such a short time?" Rauru   
cried out over the sound of the on rush of power.  
  
"Idiot, this power was obtained in the past that your 'Hero' was sent back to!" the Deity   
exclaimed as it's sword, for the first time in 7 years, formed in it's gauntleted hands.  
  
Rauru gasped at the sight his fogged vision suddenly clearing. He saw the glowing eyes   
of the entity before him, and went slack jawed.  
  
Rauru saw the next event in slow motion, but he was powerless to do anything.  
  
The deity leapt towards him, it's sword at its side, ready to thrust it's deadly, double   
bladed tip into the old mans chest.  
  
A coppery snick was heard as the Deity's weapon was punched through the kind old   
man's chest and out his back, utterly obliterating his left lung, and damaging the heart.  
  
"So much for your 'Hero' eh old man?" the warrior said, holding the weapon in the   
Hylian's chest for a second before ripping it out and taking a quick step back onto the   
watery looking surface of the pillar.  
  
Rauru staggered down onto one knee.  
  
"What have you done with Link?" he wheezed.  
  
The deity gave a wry smile. "I guess you deserve that much, old man." and sent,   
through its own telepathy, the whole of the events of Link's 'Quest' to the old man, and   
it's unfortunate result.  
  
Rauru kneeled there for a moment as the images ran through his mind, then, after it   
ended (only a moment in real time, though it felt like weeks) he looked up at the Deity.  
  
"Blast you, demon…" Rauru said, contempt dripping in his voice.  
  
The deity shook his head.  
  
"Wrong, old man, I'm no demon…" he raised one hand and gathered a ball of power   
and released the orb, turning the old man to ashes instantly.  
  
A glowing ball of power remained itself after the smoke cleared…  
  
Rauru's energy.  
  
The deity took the golden colored medallion from the bag and held it out, and the pall of   
power broke into streaking beams of energy and collected in the medallion.  
  
The Deity looked at it for a moment, then chuckled, and pressed it to his forehead.  
  
The medallion glowed and faded, and the symbol of the medallion appeared in the   
center of the blue patch on his face, and quickly vanished.  
  
"So much for his contribution to Ganon's seal. Now then, what will I do with this…"  
  
He looked at the white triangle in the center of the Triforce mark.  
  
"Time to see if this King of evil is up to the grade." He said, and held his hand out   
towards the symbol.  
  
The white stone triangle glowed, and a portal opened up.  
  
Suddenly, all the other sage symbols started to glow.  
  
The deity chuckled, and then hovered backwards, into mid air over the massive pit   
outside the pedestal, and hid himself in one of the beams of light that were there.  
  
Ganon burst from the open portal mere seconds before the other sages arrived on the   
scene.  
  
Ganondorf hung there in the air over the sages, panting for breath.  
  
"I told you I wouldn't be held for long…" he said glaring down hatefully at the sages.  
  
Darunia roared at Ganon. "We felt the sage of light's power open the seal, what of your   
tricks is this Ganon?"  
  
Suddenly, ganon's face took on an extremely perplexed expression.  
  
"A sage OPENED the seal?"  
  
"Yes! How did you make him do it?" Saria yelled.  
  
"I didn't do anything to the old man, I couldn't do anything from in there, are you all   
crazy or something?" Ganon asked, his rage completely forgotten.  
  
Suddenly, a disk of blue light streaked from one of the light pillars and struck the rock   
skinned Darunia in the back.  
  
Everyone turned around sharply, even Ganon, to face in the direction of the source of   
the attack, while Darunia tried to pick himself off the floor, his thick blood making the   
surface slippery.  
  
"What in the name of Din?" everyone there, save Saria, exclaimed.  
  
"Who did that?" Saria added.  
  
"The last person you'd expect." Came the voice of the hero from in the void.  
  
Everyone stared as they noticed the black outline of Link become visible in the front of   
the pillar of light.  
  
Darunia, who had turned himself over and was now sitting, propped up on both arms   
and legs laying useless in front of him, opened his eyes so wide you could see their   
whites.  
  
"Brother?" he said.  
  
The figure hefted a sword, it's blade like double helix. And everyone there felt a sudden   
surge of power from him.  
  
"So right, yet so wrong…" and it swung, releasing another disc of power.  
  
This time, the disk's energy enveloped the great Goron's body, turning it to ask as had   
been done to Rauru.  
  
The figure held out one gauntleted hand, holding the fire Medallion, and the second half   
of Darunia's power returned to the ruby red disc.  
  
Then the hand returned to the light pillar, and the hidden Deity absorbed the medallion   
just as before.  
  
Ganon was just as confused as the rest of the sages.  
  
"Who the bloody hell are you?" he yelled.  
  
"Now that I've taken care of two of them, I can tell you." The voice stated simply.  
  
The deity hovered out of the blinding light, and everyone stared at him.  
  
"You…" Ganon said slackjawed.  
  
Ganon's jaw set in a harsh snarl, not unlike that of a wolf.  
  
"YOU! IT WAS YOU WHO RELEASED ME WITH RAURU'S POWER, WHY!" he   
yelled.  
  
"Wrong." The deity countered.  
  
"Stop playing games boy, what are you doing? I thought these bloody stupid sages were   
your allies against me!" Ganon yelled.  
  
The deity sighed. "It's a very long story Ganon, do you really want to know."  
  
Ganon fumed, clutching an orb of power in his hand, which he threw at the Deity.  
  
The Deity slapped the power ball aside.  
  
"Really that eager to find out? Fine, I'll tell you."  
  
Everyone who was standing there, even ganon who was still hovering there, went quiet   
again, the sudden event confused tham all, and they had no idea what to expect.  
  
"I am Link, true, but only his body stands before you now."  
  
Ganon's eyes returned to normal.  
  
"You're possessed?" he said.  
  
The deity nodded. "Essentially, yes." He answered.  
  
Ganon growled at him again. "I'm being mocked by a pathetic demon…"  
  
"I already told that old fool, I am not a demon." The deity said.  
  
"THEN WHAT IN BLAZES ARE YOU!?" Ganon screamed, raising a fist clenched in   
pure rage.  
  
The deity smirked, and said one word.  
  
"Etregan."  
  
At that, Ganon's fist dropped and he stared open-mouthed at the deity.  
  
The sages looked up at the Gerudo.  
  
"What the hell does that mean Ganon?" Nabooru asked.  
  
"Who is this 'Etregan', some arch daemon you know about?" Impa added.  
  
"Well help you drive him out if it can be done." Saria added.  
  
"Anything to get Link's mind back." Ruto said.  
  
Ganon looked at the sages.  
  
"I never thought I'd hear you offer to help, but it would do little good I'm afraid." He   
said.  
  
"WHAT!?" the remaining sages yelled.  
  
Ganon looked back at the hovering, metal armored being before them.  
  
"Etregan is a name I only ever saw once in a tome, supposedly an ancient myth of a   
foreign culture…" he paused.  
  
"A god of war." He said.  
  
Saria looked at the two hovering people.  
  
"Then, how did Link get possessed?" she asked.  
  
Ganon cleared his throat.  
  
"The tome said that the god, Etregan, was a violent and malicious entity, who brought   
ruin to many races. The other gods, even the ones that had sired him, looked upon him in   
distaste, but they could do little to stop him…"  
  
The deity's expression became sour.  
  
"Until they got a society of magi, and their blasted mask on their side." Etregan said   
bitterly.  
  
Ruto was confused. "Mask?" she asked.  
  
The deity placed it's huge sword on it's back, and held out both hands, where a pair of   
pieces of heavily ornate wood appeared. He held them together and they made a heart   
shaped mask, with protruding spikes.  
  
"The mask of Majora, along with the rest of the elder gods, and that society of druids   
managed to trap me in a mask, a mask that was my own face… and the one of your so   
called 'Hero'."  
  
"How could a mask be so important to trapping a god?" Saria asked.  
  
"A mask can hold a lot of power, depending on how it is made." Impa said.  
  
The deity smirked. "All too true Shiekah." He said, and sent the broken mask away.  
  
Ganon glared at the form in front of him. "But how did you get Link to put your mask   
on?"  
  
Etregan shook his head.  
  
"This same song and dance… look, I've had enough of explanations, either defend   
yourself, or shut up and prepare to die!" Etregan yelled, and drew his battle blade from   
his back.  
  
"And if you really want to know how I became unto Link's body, you can hear that   
story from Rauru across from this mortal coil!" he yelled.  
  
Ganon drew his own massive sword, unused for so long.  
  
"Sorry, but I'm planning on knocking that mask from your face, Etregan."  
  
The deity grinned.  
  
"Good luck trying Gerudo, I doubt you'll succeed."  
  
Ganon flew at Etregan, and a blinding flash burst out as their blades collided.  
  
The next few minutes were masked by the light, but when it cleared, the two were   
clashing wildly, flying about the open space of the chamber of sages.  
  
Etregan was merely deflecting Ganon's blows, as sweat beaded off the Gerudo's brow.  
  
More to come, if I get good reviews.  



	2. Taking flight

The Madness of the Mask  
  
Chapter two: Taking flight.  
  
The battle raged across the chamber of sages. Ganondorf fought with his sword, and   
fireball technique. Etregan only with his sword, and the sages themselves were hurling   
power-balls at the god, to little avail. He would either dodge, deflect, or didn't even   
flinch under the assault.  
  
When Ganondorf gathered his mass of dark power overhead, he received an added boost   
of energy from the gathered sages, which he channeled at the armored being.  
  
Etregan only had to repel the beam a little more forcefully than a normal attack.  
  
Thing's weren't looking good.  
  
Ruto grabbed Saria by the shoulders at one point.  
  
"Saria, listen to me, I have an idea."  
  
"Yes, what?"  
  
"I want you to leave, go and alert Zelda. She'll be able to get through to Link in there   
along with all of us and the Triforce of wisdom, that's got to be the way!" Ruto   
explained.  
  
"All right, you keep him busy as long as possible."  
  
* * * *  
  
A moment after Saria teleported, she was at the castle courtyard, but Zelda was nowhere   
to be found.  
  
"Oh, great, just when we need her again, she's disappeared."  
  
After about ten minutes of levitating and looking in the windows, she found the   
princess, talking with some visiting noble.  
  
Saria wrenched open the window.  
  
"Zelda!"  
  
Zelda looked up sharply. "Saria?" she said stunned at the sudden appearance.  
  
"There's a BIG problem in the chamber of sages Zelda, we need your help!"  
  
"What on earth is going on here?" The noble, a duke from a neighboring land,   
exclaimed.  
  
"Uh, sorry, pressing business." Zelda said, and teleported out the window, following   
Saria.  
  
They reappeared in the temple of time.  
  
"Zelda, they're kind of busy in there, but it'll kill them, teleport them out here and we   
can explain things before He gets out."  
  
"Teleport the sages out?"  
  
"Everyone but the person that feel's like Link." Saria said.  
  
"Link? He's back?"  
  
"Yes and no, but please just get them out of there!"  
  
"Alright…" Zelda said, and snapped her fingers.  
  
Suddenly, a single ball of energy flared in the room, and disappeared…  
  
Revealing the crouching form of Ganondorf.  
  
Zelda screamed.  
  
"WHAT IS HE DOING OUT?" she yelled frantically.  
  
"Where's all the other sages?" Saria demanded.  
  
"Link… Etregan, killed them, almost had me too before you pulled me out." Ganondorf   
explained, panting heavily. Sweat running down his face.  
  
"Saria, please tell me WHAT IN THE NAME IF DIN IS GOING ON HERE!"  
  
"Honestly, I'd like to tell you all about it princess, but we are al in a deep load of horse   
SH*T if we don't get out of here right now!"  
  
Suddenly, the pedestal of time glowed, and let out a beam of blue likght, and the sound   
of link's voice, echoing with power, emanated from it.  
  
"Oh, Ganon… Where'd you get off to? We didn't finish our little game yet!" came the   
voice.  
  
Saria grabbed Zelda's arm.  
  
"Zelda, listen, Link's possessed, he's killed all the other sages, and released Ganon here   
so he could kill him to and take the Triforce, we all have to GET OUT OF HERE!"  
  
Zelda was too stunned to move. Saria let out a groan of frustration.  
  
"Ganon, carry her!" She said.  
  
The Gerudo grabbed Zelda and lifted her over his shoulder, where she galvanized into   
action, kicking and screaming.  
  
"Better stop that Princess, he already wants to kill us, best not to give our position   
away."  
  
They ran out of the building, the image of Ganon carrying off Zelda sending the people   
in the town square into screams. While the guards blocked the gateway.  
  
"HALT!" the captain yelled at the dark skinned man.  
  
"OUTTA MY WAY!" Ganon yelled, and blasted the whole group with energy shots,   
sending them sprawling.  
  
The second they reached the field, Ganon whistled, and his black stallion galloped up,   
as if out of thin air. He threw Zelda over it, mounted, and Saria leaps nimbly up to the   
saddle. Ganon then gave his horse a sharp kick and it was off in a gallop.  
  
"Alright Saria, where do you suggest we go?" Ganon said.  
  
"Only thing that comes to mind is the forest, it's where Link went off to before THAT   
happened to him!" Saria said  
  
"The lost woods it is then!" Ganon said, and turned his stallion towards the east.  
  
Meanwhile, Etregan had just gotten out of the sages realm, and was hovering above the   
pedestal of time, his hands glowing brightly.  
  
"Well well, looks like they're looking for Termina. Heh heh heh… good luck finding it!  



	3. The old, dead tree

The Madness of the Mask  
  
Chapter three: The old, dead tree.  
  
A mad gallop, all the way into the depths of the forest, far beyond the furthest borders of   
Hyrule they went, riding the sweating, panting black stallion. Behind them, the maniacal   
laughter of the dark god, Etregan, resounded off the trees in the misty gloom.  
  
Looking back, for only the briefest moment, Ganon saw several trees get felled swiftly,   
as the god, flying through the forest after them, cleared his way with the double helix-like   
blade.  
  
"Uh oh… we got company." He said and urged his horse on even faster.  
  
Saria looked back, and saw just how close Etregan was.  
  
"Not for long." She said, and raised her hands, gathering a bit of power.  
  
Suddenly, a particularly large tree seemed to fill out tremendously and become a giant,   
wooden, human hand with short leafy branches coming off the fingertips. The hand came   
to life, and batted the god backwards into a boulder where he lay still for a second before   
flipping nimbly up to his feet.  
  
"It won't stop him, but it'll hold him off for a bit. C'mon, over that way, I think we can   
loose him in the under brush for a bit longer…" Saria said, urgently.  
  
Ganon, looking back at the monstrous wooden appendage that actually seemed to be   
holding it's own against the warrior, nodded slowly before he turned the horse off in that   
direction.  
  
* * * *  
  
The hand seemed to be working well as a distraction, as they didn't hear him come after   
them for about 15 minutes when Saria suddenly leapt off the horse for no apparent   
reason.  
  
"WHOA!" Ganon called out as he stopped his horse, and Zelda almost flew off.  
  
"What the heck was that for?" she demanded, glaring back at the Gerudo male.  
  
"Don't look at me, your little forest friend must've gone nuts, she just jumped off a   
second ago… look, she's standing at that tree stump over there."  
  
Indeed, Saria was standing at the base of a rather large tree stump, they could see her   
from the side, so they couldn't see what it was that she was so interested in.  
  
Ganon walked his horse over to Saria's side, and Zelda hopped off.  
  
"Hey, Saria, is everything alright?" she asked the girl.  
  
Saria looked up at Zelda, shook her head, and pointed at the side of the stump.  
  
Zelda looked at the stump, and gasped.  
  
There was a crudely scratched image in it, of four, strange creatures, consisting of a   
huge, rounded head, with legs and arms. A pair of fairies, what looked like a skull kid,   
and the unmistakable image of link as a boy.  
  
"What does this mean Saria?" Zelda asked.  
  
Ganon, who had dismounted to examine the markings as well, was equally perplexed,   
and was scratching his chin in thought.  
  
"Maybe this was made by someone the boy befriended before he became possessed?"   
he said.  
  
Saria looked up at him sharply, then back at the skull kid that was holding link's hand.  
  
"I think I know how to find out."  
  
"How?" both adults asked.   
  
"Get back on the horse, and follow my directions Ganon, I know where we have to go."   
Saria ordered, almost frantically.  
  
"Better hurry up about it then haven't you?" came an all to familiar voice.  
  
The three of them looked up to see Etregan sitting cross-legged in a high tree branch,   
arms crossed, grinning down at them with his glowing white eyes.  
  
"That trick with the tree was very impressive Saria, very entertaining. I wonder, have   
you any other rabbits to pull out of your hat?"  
  
Saria stood there stunned for one second, then clapped her hands together. A collection   
of roots and vines shot from the ground, bearing rock and soil in their twisting and   
gnarled lengths. All of them came together in a kind of earthy, plant based golem, easily   
three times Ganon's height.  
  
"SMASH HIM!" Saria yelled to the creature she had summoned, knowing that at best   
it'd probably only slow him down.  
  
The golem's eyes glowed brightly, and swung out at the tree Etregan was sitting in.   
Etregan himself leapt nimbly of the tree, off the golem's head in a kind of hand standing   
flip, and into another tree, where he summoned his sword.  
  
Meanwhile, the three survivors jumped onto the horse and took off, following Saria's   
directions once again.  
  
* * * *  
  
Eventually they stopped at a small, hallow arch. There they had to dismount, and Ganon   
smacked his stallion on the flank, telling it to go home.  
  
"What do we do here?" Zelda asked.  
  
"We go through that arch, and into a hallow, giant tree trunk in the next little field."   
Saria explained.  
  
"Why not add a little insurance to out endeavor, hmm?" Ganon asked, and snapped his   
fingers, opening a dark portal.  
  
A mirror image of Ganon himself, riding astride what had to be his horse's twin, rose   
from the portal. The only difference was that the man riding the horse was wielding a   
rather nasty double lance, one end having a triple bladed tip, the other having one larger   
one. Also, the tri tipped end had a glowing red gem set in it.  
  
The mounted Ganon pulled his own face off, to reveal the horned bony mask that   
covered the shadow face of the phantom Ganon that Link had defeated in the forest   
temple.  
  
"Go, and hold the warrior off for as long as possible, do not give up until you are no   
more." Ganon instructed the apparition.  
  
The phantom nodded, and rode off at a gallop, rising into midair along with the horse it   
rode.  
  
Saria and Zelda looked at Ganon for a moment then turned and went to the arch.  
  
Once through the arch into a tiny field, they had to leap a few tree trunks. Zelda, not   
wanting to ruin her dress any further, changed into her Shiekah outfit.  
  
Once past the trunks, and the huge fungal growths on them, they screeched to a stop just   
at the edge of a huge drop.  
  
"Oh, great, now what do we do?" Zelda asked.  
  
"Simple." Ganon said, grabbed both of them under one arm each, and jumped into the   
pit.  
  
The girls screamed.  



End file.
